The patients of eating disorders - Assignment Example

instructions Two kinds of eating disorders include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In anorexia nervosa, an individual extremely conscious about excessive weight in spite of being far underweight, and thus continues starvation. In bulimia nervosa, an individual does binge eating and follows that with vomiting. Adolescents suffering from anorexia nervosa are at great risk of heart damage and if they are not treated, up to 15 per cent of them die (Wang and Brownell, 2005). Stein et al. (2013) carried out a research to study the association between the attitudes related to life and death with suicidal behavior in the patients of eating disorders.

To achieve this, the researchers conducted examination over a total of 43 inpatients of eating disorders that were nonsuicidal, 32 inpatients of eating disorders that had tried to attempt suicide before, and also a control group of 21 participants containing scales to evaluate the attitudes toward life and death, core symptoms of eating disorders, attitudes related to body, anxiety, and depression. Their research led them to the findings that there was less attraction toward life and more repulsion from it in both groups of eating disorders as compared to that in the control participants.

There was more attraction toward death and lesser repulsion from it, as well as more negative perceptions and behaviors about body in the suicide attempters as compared to the nonsuicidal control participants and the nonsuicidal patients of eating disorders. Researchers also found association between fear of life and elevated depression, childhood sexual abuse, and problems related to body. They found association between pathological attitudes toward death and more problems related to body and greater depression.

Inpatients of eating disorders that did binge eating had maladaptive attitudes for death and had attempted suicide. The conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that a fundamental aspect of an eating disorder is fear of life, but maladaptive attitudes for death are only observed in those patients of eating disorders that have tried suicide. This research relates to the topic in the textbook because provides further information about the patients of eating disorders, how they perceive life and what is their approach toward death.

This research also suggests which patients of eating disorders are more likely to commit suicide as compared to others. -Elaborate on the importance of the study. What are at least 2 positive and 2 negative things about the article/study and how it was conducted? Expand on why this study is notable and why it was published. References: Stein, D. et al. (2013). Attitudes Toward Life and Death and Suicidality Among Inpatient Female Adolescents With Eating Disorders. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 201(12), 1066-1071. Wang S. S.

, and Brownell, K. D. (2005). Public policy and obesity: the need to marry science with advocacy. Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 28, 235-252.